The politics of organizing indigenous sport – cross-border and cross-sectoral complexity

Indigenous Sport and Nation-Building

“…Thus, the Sámi sport organization in Finland, SVL-F, receives no subsidies from the state because -just as in Sweden -Sámi sport was viewed as a cultural affair and hence outside the scope for those dealing with sport policy. In other words, the same lack of interest in, contribution to, or legitimation of, Sámi sport revealed in Norwegian sport policy (Skille et al, 2021b) seems even stronger in Sweden and Finland.…”

“…In this section, we will see how the relatively better conditions for Sámi in Norway create a 'big brother' attitude in relation to their peers in Finland -at least that is how it is seen from Finland. I discuss the relationship between Sámi sport in Finland and Norway via an empirical case of a reorganization process of Sámi sport (Skille et al, 2021b).…”

“…For example, the Sport Unit in the Ministry of Education and Culture in the Finnish government had heard nothing about the process and referred to the Sámi Parliament and the local authorities in Sápmi for affairs regarding Sámi sport. In that respect, Finnish politicians and bureaucrats share with many of their counterparts in Sweden and Norway Skille et al, 2021b) a lack of competence and interest in Sámi sport. Officials of the Sámi Parliament in Finland knew of the organizational reform of Sámi sport and shared the vision of an all-Sámi organization across state borders.…”

“…Although some general support for a reorganization of Sámi sport is found in the Sámi Parliament in Finland, it quickly turns into an economic explanation of Norwegians -or Sámis in Norway. The lack of common ground and suspicion created across borders indicates cultural differences within Sápmi (Skille et al, 2021a(Skille et al, , 2021b.…”

The art of balance: Indigenous sport governance between traditional government and self-governance

“…Such a power dimension has been adequately covered in the broader sociology literature (Gilroy, 2008;Go, 2013) and in the sociology of sport literature, when studying, for example, Māori in New Zealand (Collins and Jackson, 2007;Scherer and Jackson, 2013), Aboriginal people in Australia (Hallinan and Judd, 2014) and Indigenous people in Canada (Forsyth and Giles, 2013;Forsyth and Paraschak, 2013). Extant research has shown how such asymmetries not only have consequences for attention, priorities and resource allocation but also for Indigenous groups' inclination to take part in such discussions (Coates, 2004;Dahl, 2012), including those of sport policies (Skille, 2012;Skille et al, 2021). This issue is further complicated by the fact that Indigenous groups are, to various degrees, recognised by the nation-states they live in.…”